Dr. Thomas Hibbs, Dean of the Honors College, reviews M. Night Shyamalan's "Glass" (2019) in "The Catholic World Report." Dean Hibbs is a Distinguished Professor of Ethics and Culture at Baylor University, where he teaches in the Great Texts Program, the Baylor Interdisciplinary Core, and the graduate program in Philosophy.

The nonprofit organization Mothers on the Move, founded by Arts & Sciences and Honors College alumna Jolene Damoiseaux (BS in biology 2014), has won the Albert Schweitzer Prize Audience Award from the Nederlands Albert Schweitzer Fund, which provides money for local health projects in Africa. Damoiseaux started Mothers on the Move as a Baylor senior to provide expectant mothers in Western Kenya with free transportation to a health center to safely give birth.

Every year, a number of Baylor’s brightest undergraduates prepare applications for academia’s most prestigious international scholarship programs. Scores of Baylor students have received Rhodes, Fulbright, Marshall, Truman and other such scholarships over the past century or so, which not only earns acclaim for themselves and the university, but proves invaluable to many students as they prepare for high-level careers with an international focus.

Two recent Baylor recipients, and Honors College Alums, of prestigious scholarships are now using them to advance their studies overseas and gain an international perspective in their chosen professions.

Thomas S. Hibbs is s Dean of the Honors College and Distinguished Professor of Ethics and Culture at Baylor University, and the author of many essays and books on philosophy and popular culture. He is also a contributor to Catholic World Report. His most recent book is Wagering On an Ironic God: Pascal on Faith and Philosophy, published last year by Baylor University Press.

Dr. Hibbs recently corresponded with Carl E. Olson, editor of CWR, about Pascal, the famed philosopher’s “wager”, his debt to St. Augustine, and Christ as the “Eucharistic Cipher”.

The archaeological research project of San Giuliano is in the middle of an incredible and productive third season of excavations. The collaboration between Baylor University, the Virgil Academy, the Archaeological Superintendence of the Province of Viterbo and Southern Etruria, and the Municipality of Barbarano Romano, has laid the foundations for significant discoveries. A survey was carried out on the necropolis of San Giuliano, which was lacking an overall site plan, operating in some selected sectors. The research team also investigated the medieval fortification on the plateau at the top of San Giuliano.

Texas State Technical College’s Aircraft Pilot Training Technology program and Baylor University’s Aviation Sciences department work together to give students like Natalie Verhoog, current BIC Student, the chance to reach new heights.

“I’m really getting a unique college experience going to both schools, and it’s an amazing opportunity. The programs mesh together really well, and I get to fly planes for college credit,” said Verhoog, a Baylor Aviation Sciences sophomore with a Professional Pilot concentration from Redding, California.

Dr. Darin Davis is Baylor’s Vice President for University Mission, Director for the Institute for Faith and Learning, and faculty member in the Honors Program. He shares how Baylor intentionally seeks to live out its mission and affirm its Christian identity in this post to parents.

From its founding in Independence, Texas, more than 170 years ago, Baylor University has resolutely affirmed its Christian identity and mission. Our motto “Pro Ecclesia, Pro Texana” expresses our commitment to God and others, and it inspires Baylor’s teaching, research, athletic programs, student life, and much more. Baylor is a special place. Our Christian faith animates who we are and what we do.

Hannah Byrd, B.A. (Arabic and Middle East Studies/International Studies) ’18, has been awarded a Middle East and North Africa Regional (MENAR) Fellowship, an international program that fosters a new generation of U.S. leaders in service, politics and policy who have experience with the challenges the region faces and the potential it holds. She is the first Baylor graduate to earn the prestigious post-graduate fellowship.

As a MENAR Fellow, Byrd will teach English to children ages 2-14 with Club Anglais in La Marsa, Tunisia.

A Baylor University event marking the 50th anniversary of King’s assassination aimed to shed light on the minister and civil rights leader who is “so often evoked and so rarely studied in any detail,” said Dean Thomas Hibbs, director of Baylor in Washington, the school’s outpost in the capital.

Organizers said they arranged for the discussion of King’s legacy as a display of brotherhood from two people of widely different perspectives. “Their friendship is a counter to so much of what ails our public life,” Hibbs told the audience at the luncheon at a Capitol Hill hotel.

As a Christian institution with the mission to prepare men and women for worldwide leadership and service, Baylor attracts students who are uncommonly mission-driven and determined to face the most pressing social challenges with compassion and creativity. The University began social innovation labs that cross multiple disciplines to engage and inspire such students to become torchbearers around the globe in dealing with some of the most difficult problems facing society, such as child migration in the Western Hemisphere.

At its regular spring meeting, the Baylor University Board of Regents accepted the University moving forward with the implementation of Illuminate, Baylor’s Academic Strategic Plan, and took action to approve a $660.1 million operating budget for 2018-2019, five new academic degrees and new Board members.

Alexa Larsen, a senior neuroscience major at Baylor University, has been selected to receive a Fulbright U.S. Student Program award to the United Kingdom in global health. Larsen will pursue a master of science in global health at the University of Southampton and conduct research as part of a project concentrating on interventions to prevent early motherhood.

Two Baylor faculty members recently received the 2018 American Publishers Award for Professional and Scholarly Excellence (PROSE) Award in Classics. The PROSE Awards annually recognize the best in professional and scholarly publishing by bringing attention to distinguished books, journals and electronic content in 58 categories.

Jeffrey M. Hunt, Ph.D., lecturer in classics and assistant director of the University Scholars Program, and R. Alden Smith, Ph.D., chair of classics and associate dean of the Honors College, along with coauthor Fabio Stok, received the award for their work, Classics from Papyrus to the Internet: An Introduction to Transmission and Reception.

“I am so grateful for the opportunity to represent the United States as a cultural ambassador and look forward to experiencing the nation I have learned to love from afar. I am grateful for the assistance of Baylor’s SPARK office, as well as the support and incredible education I have received from Baylor. The Honors College in particular has been formational in my education and I am thrilled to get to take all that I have learned to Mexico. I hope to influence my students there with the same care and excellence I received at Baylor.”

On April 23rd, the McNair Scholars Program at Baylor University inducted its Inaugural Class of 24 scholars. The McNair Scholars Program is in honor of Dr. Ronald E. McNair who lost his life during the ill-fated U.S. Challenger space shuttle mission. The McNair Scholars Program is a federally funded program (one of the TRIO Programs funded by the Department of Education) mandated by Congress.

Several months before the 2016 election, Harper’s Magazine published an unlikely essay by Alan Jacobs suggesting that in the midst of the fractious punditry gripping the country, we might benefit from the return of Christian public intellectuals. “Their task,” Jacobs suggested, “would be that of the interpreter, the bridge of cultural gaps; of the mediator, maybe even the reconciler.” Such thinkers existed half a century ago and occupied a prominent role in the public square, he wrote, but “they are gone now.”

It was a strange comment coming from Jacobs, who was, in a way, describing himself: a Christian intellectual who has dedicated most of his career to bridging gaps not only between Christians and non-Christians but also between disciplines and audiences.

Sofia Sonner, a senior biology major from South Pasadena, California, has been selected to receive a prestigious Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship (ETA) to Taiwan. Sonner is among three Fulbright recipients this spring and Baylor’s 54th Fulbright recipient since 2001.

“She takes true delight in learning,” Doyle said. “One outcome of that desire to learn was Sofia’s summer field station experience, a requirement on our ecology track, at Oregon Institute of Marine Biology. That selection built on her previous volunteer experience at the Aquarium of the Pacific where she interacted with guests to teach them about marine animals. Sofia is well-prepared academically but also passionate about teaching and service. I look forward to hearing great things from her Fulbright experience and beyond.”

John Ryan Isaacson, a senior international studies major from Muleshoe, Texas, has been selected to receive a prestigious Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship (ETA) to Germany. Isaacson is among three Fulbright recipients this spring and Baylor’s 53rd Fulbright recipient since 2001.

“John Ryan is the student every Baylor professor wants,” said King, part-time lecturer in religion and the Baylor Interdisciplinary Core (BIC). “He’s intelligent, and he works hard, beyond hard. He is exactly what Baylor needs, and he is exactly what can move Baylor to the next level. If every student was willing to think – critically – about the questions John Ryan is willing to think about, the world would be a much different place... a much more socially just place. I’m grateful to have had John Ryan in class. He made me a better teacher, and I hope – somehow – I helped him become a better student.”

The Honors College is excited to announce that Ben Aguiņaga, BBA ‘12, will provide the keynote address at the Honors Convocation on April 20th. Aguiņaga was recently selected to serve as a law clerk to United States Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito. During his time at Baylor, Aguiņaga was in the Honors Program double majoring in political science and philosophy with minors in mathematics and history.

As spring graduation and commitment dates for graduate and professional schools approach, many faculty and staff commemorate their students’ achievements. Keller senior Stacy Nguyen started in the Sleep Neuroscience & Cognition Laboratory (SNaC) in August 2015. Nguyen has worn several hats both in the lab and as an undergraduate student.

“I got connected with it by luck actually,” Nguyen said. “A poster at Undergraduate Research and Scholarly Achievement (URSA) in Spring 2015 caught my eye, and I noticed the logo on top and was intrigued that there was a sleep lab at Baylor.”

The teams were among 14 groups of nearly 250 students, faculty and staff who served in seven countries in early March. Each team had a discipline-specific focus to their missions, actively integrating their faith with service and learning. They were able to use their academic perspective and passions to approach challenges and solutions in Guatemala.

The Honors Residential College partnered with Potter's House, an organization that works with people who live around the Guatemala City trash dump. Senior Jordan Millhollin said they witnessed an incredible level of poverty and human suffering. Neighborhoods of houses were made from tin and scraps of cinder blocks and piles of trash lining the street were sorted by workers hoping to sell the scraps for a little bit of cash.

On Mar. 11, Jo, a University Scholar concentrating in environmental health science received the Pfizer Society of Toxicology undergraduate research travel award at its 57th annual meeting in San Antonio. Jo was one of only 14 recipients of the award recognized.

Jo said that the award and her research has greatly affected her time at Baylor and looks forward to the future.

“I have been working on this project for two years, and even though it’s been quite challenging it has been very worthwhile,” Jo said. “I have learned a lot by working closely with professors and graduate students who are always willing to help and who have become great mentors throughout these two years.”